Lesley told the Radio Times: "They're just saying, 'We're playing these women who are in their 60s and 70s and yes they're still attractive and they're still having a sex life and ... they want all the things that people stereotypically think that a woman over 50 is not going to want any more.'"

But the star of BBC sitcom 'Mum', in which she plays a widow who is moving on with her life after her husband's death, believes the entertainment industry is starting to show older women in a more positive light.

Lesley added: "I think it's getting better for older women.

"That's because film and television-makers realise that there is a huge audience of women who want to go to the cinema or turn on the telly and see stuff that doesn't alienate them, that embraces them, that isn't just about gorgeous 20- or 30-somethings, that represents their lives."

Lesley is nominated for the Best Supporting Actress award at the Baftas and the Oscars for her role alongside Daniel Day Lewis in the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed 'Phantom Thread'.

And attention has already been drawn to the face that none of the women nominated in the category at the Oscars - Manville, Laurie Metcalf, 62, Allison Janney, 58 Octavia Spencer, 45, and Mary J Blige, 47 - are under the age of 40.